1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a media converter. In particular, the present invention relates to a direct attach media converter transforming the RJ-45 interface signal and the pluggable transceiver module interface signal.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
With the Internet's rapid development and popularization of Internet, the contents of the communication and the demand for bandwidth for users are increasing. In order to meet this demand, Internet service providers continue to build large data centers, high-speed computing centers or data storage centers. Meanwhile, for high-speed and massive network transmission, network communication industry organizations IEEE802.3an also developed a more high-speed communication physical layer transmission standard; such as 10GBASE-T, which can support a transmission rate of 10 Gbit/s for a transmission distance of 100 meters in shielded twisted pair (STP) or in unshielded twisted pair (UTP). RJ-45 interface has been widely used by 10GBASE-T in ethernet. On the other hand, IEEE802.3ae also developed another physical layer transmission standard 10GBASE-R, which also supports 10 Gbit/s transfer rate by using optical fibers as the transmission medium.
In general, different transmission media cannot be directly interconnected. Therefore, when building network communication link, in order to support both transmission standards 10GBASE-T and 10GBASE-R's, a network physical layer media converter would be used to convert the transmission medium. A media converter, for example, would be used to connect the copper cable and the optical fiber cable to enhance the convenience for building the network communication link.
For instance, a common network device of 10 Gbit/s Ethernet uses two different transmission interfaces, the RJ-45 interface and the pluggable transceiver module interface. However, these two transmission interfaces cannot be directly interconnected. The media converter is a must to connect these two transmission interfaces. Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional media converter system has been depicted for transforming the RJ-45 interface to the pluggable transceiver module. As shown, the media converter system 1 comprises an RJ-45 interface network switch 10, an enhanced small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) interface network switch 12 and a media converter 14. The media converter 14 has an RJ-45 interface port 140 and an SFP+ interface port 142. The RJ-45 interface network switch 10 is connected to the media converter 14 through an RJ-45 cable 16. Each end of the RJ-45 cable 16 respectively has an RJ-45 interface connector for connecting to the RJ-45 interface port 100 of the RJ-45 interface network switch 10 and to the RJ-45 interface port 140 of the media converter 14. The SFP+ interface network switch 12 is connected to the media converter 14 via an optical fiber cable 18. Each end of the optical fiber cable 18 respectively has an SFP+ interface optical transceiver module 182 for connecting to the SFP+ interface port 122 of the SFP+ interface network switch and to the SFP+ interface 142 of the media converter 14.
The media converter system as shown in FIG. 1 is not perfect without drawbacks. Specifically, the media converter 14 must have both the RJ-45 interface port 140 and the SFP+ interface port 142. Further, the optical fiber cable 18 also must use two pluggable transceiver modules 182 to connect the SFP+ interface network switch 12 and the media converter 14. Thus, when building large-scale network communication links, the complexity and the difficulty of the links would be increased. The cost of building the links would be added as well. On the other hand, the signal after the transmission through the pluggable transceiver modules and the SFP+ interface ports will inevitably lead to the downgrade of the signal and increase of the noise. Excessive port links will seriously affect the quality of signal transmission.
In view of the above, it is essential for the skilled in this art to create an ideal way to convert between the RJ-45 interface and the pluggable transceiver module interface for lowering the cost and the complexity of the links and providing good quality of signal transmission.